Bad Santa 2: Movie Review

It has been 13 years since Billy Bob Thornton made us laugh our asses off as drunken’ Santa Claus conman, Willie Soke.  “Bad Santa” remains one of the best holiday comedies to date. It may be crass, vulgar, and mean spirited at times, but it sure was funny.  It also never needed a sequel.  That doesn’t stop Hollywood though.  All the major players in front of the camera are back, but a new director and writers have come aboard.  Unfortunately, like most comedy sequels, “Bad Santa 2” feels forced and lacks the cleverness of the original.

Willie (Thornton) hasn’t changed a bit since last we saw him. He is still broke and drunk.  Ready to give up on life, he attempts to take his own life.  Naturally he manages to screw that up too. When Marcus (Tony Cox) shows up and tells Willie he has a job lined up in Chicago with a two million dollar score, he hesitates due to the fact that Marcus tried to kill him in the last movie.  Willie does partner up with Marcus again but regrets that decision as soon as he realizes that his mother Sunny Soke (Kathy Bates) is the one who set it up.  Willie hates his mother with a passion but a job is a job and they are now all working together.

The chubby little clueless kid, Thurman Merman (Brett Kelly) from the first film is back. He is now 21 years old and has actually gotten dumber with age.  He follows Willie to Chicago just so they could spend Christmas together.  This adds a bit of a complication to Willie’s con, which involves ripping off a children’s charity.  With all this going on, Willie still finds time to get kinky with the charity founder (Christina Hendricks).

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t laugh once or twice. Every so often a joke would actually work. When Willie tries to gas himself with an electric oven had me laughing, even though it’s was actually quite sad.  “Bad Santa 2” is not much more than 89 minutes of profanity and an excessive use of foul language is just not comedy.

By: Marc Ferman